This invention constitutes an improvement over the apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,257 granted to Fisher et al on Dec. 12, 1995 entitled "Deployable Wing", U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,863 granted to Fisher et al on Mar. 23, 1999 entitled "Method and Apparatus For Deploying A Wing " and U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,979 granted to Fisher et al on Mar. 9, 1999 entitled "Method And Apparatus For Landing A Wing", which all are incorporated herein by reference. These patents essentially details a deployable wing that includes mechanism for controlling the landing thereof. In particular, the wing is foldable to a relatively narrow mechanism that is capable of being lifted into air via a cargo type of aircraft such as the Air Force's C-130 airplane and is released from the cargo bay and an actuator is activated to cause the wing to deploy and extend into a relatively delta airfoil. The wing consists of diverging leading edge spars attached to a keel spar and cross spars that support a fabric sail. The sail is made in substantially two major portions, an upper section and a lower section that define a relatively closed chamber having an opening or ram air intake at the fore end (nose stagnation point) to lead ram air internally thereof. The wing includes a leading edge with a front point, trailing edge, and controllable wing tips. The wing may have a king post attached to and extending from the keel, a cargo pod mounted to the wing via the keel. The wing carries a first parachute attached to the slider slidably mounted on the keel of the wing where the parachute provides force for causing the wing to deploy to its full open and gliding position. A second parachute attached to the wing is used for decelerating the wing and allowing it to land in a controllable and safe descent to the ground. This second parachute system assures that the wing descend to the ground in primarily a vertical direction relative to ground. The wing may be controlled by an automatic navigational system or by a remotely controlled radio transmitter.
While such systems have utility in certain applications where it is desirable to deliver a pay load several miles, say up to thirty (30) miles from the point of drop off from the aircraft, there are other applications, where it is desirable to extend the distance and that is the essence of this invention. It should be pointed out that there are no controllable wings that are designed to deliver a pay load to an extended distant destination prior to this invention. This invention contemplated adapting an internal combustion piston engine to the wing and activating the engine automatically or by remote control at a given point during the flight of the wing after it is deployed. Incorporation of the propulsion will extend the range of the otherwise glider and will afford the option of dropping a payload (or other mission objective) then return under power to a recovery point. The invention contemplates mechanism to assure that the parachute and/or its chords connected to the wing which are used to assist in the landing thereof does not get tangled up with the propeller driven by the engine.